Within high-speed network applications, the ability to perform lookup operations quickly can be of critical importance. In order to process a packet, for example, one or more attributes of the packet typically must be determined and used to perform a lookup operation. The result of the lookup operation can be determinative of the handling to be implemented for the packet. A non-exhaustive list of attribute examples that can influence packet handling can include packet type, packet ownership, and the like. Examples of packet handling operations can include, but are not limited to, determining the next hop address for a packet based upon the destination address of the packet, forwarding a packet, routing packets, and screening packets. These sorts of packet operations can involve one or more lookup operations per packet.
Accordingly, the bandwidth of a network node can be highly dependent upon the ability of the network node to perform lookup operations quickly and efficiently. Slow lookup performance can result in reduced bandwidth in the network node. Slow lookup performance also can increase the cost of the network node since latency induced by the lookup process may necessitate the inclusion of additional memory in the network node to avoid data overflow conditions.